Bates Cold Front
We love getting to know the teams we work with, especially when they share our values!
VC team member Jess Richard worked with Bates College's Cold Front, and shares more about the team below.
Jess Richard (JR): Who’s Cold Front – tell us everything!
Cold Front (CF): Cold Front is the women’s, non-binary, and gender non-conforming ultimate frisbee team at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Cold Front exists to provide our members with an inclusive and equitable environment to play ultimate frisbee. We further aim to create spaces that are friendly and supportive, in which players are given the opportunity to make connections, build community, be active, and have fun.
"Cold Front exists to provide our members with an inclusive and equitable environment to play ultimate frisbee."
The Fall is all about teaching the basics of frisbee -- tossing, field awareness, and the rules -- since a majority of our members have never touched a disc before arriving at Bates. We also attend a number of non-competitive tournaments throughout the New England area which gives us the opportunity to gain experience on the field and bond as a team.
During the Spring semester, Cold Front splits into two teams -- the A and B team -- both of which compete throughout the second semester and Short Term. Our A team has made several appearances at nationals over the past few years. Our B team, Bold Front, also practices and competes throughout the winter and spring, playing teams around New England. We like to emphasize that no experience is necessary to join our team, and that Bold Front specifically welcomes new players at any time during the year!
We also enjoy playing ultimate and spending time with Bates’ Men’s team, Orange Whip. We organize weekly Friday afternoon scrimmages with O-Whip in the Fall and hold a co-ed indoor league during the winter. As much as we love playing ultimate, we also love spending time with each other and building the Cold Front community off the field. We hold a number of social events including off-campus excursions to local spots, game nights, and alumni tournaments to provide members with spaces to have fun and connect with new people.
JR: There was a team "look" update this year – what’s the story behind the new designs?
CF: Our goal was to use this branding update as a way to better represent the fun and energetic nature of Cold Front through our jerseys. While we are a serious and competitive team at times, we are also a goofy and eclectic group, and we hope to display those aspects of our personalities through our uniforms moving forward!
Designing the jerseys was a full team endeavor -- we combined the ideas and suggestions of a number of Cold Fronters to create some preliminary sketches and were thrilled with the final designs VC came up with! We stuck with our signature blue and white color palette, and there was a lot of interest in incorporating design elements that would showcase our connection to Maine and Lewiston (practicing in the sub-degree, snowy winters of Maine builds a lot of character)!
The Maine outline on our light jerseys and Lewiston skyline on the dark jersey are an ode to the places we are proud to come from and represent. Most importantly, we wanted to showcase our logo, the snowflake, which represents the fact that each of us are uniquely different but come together to create a cohesive, purposeful whole! The yeti throwing a disc added a fun, quirky element.
Our biggest hope with this branding update was that we could create a sense of community amongst Cold Fronters. Like many individuals and groups on campus, COVID restrictions made it difficult to feel connected with each other at times, and we were aware of the challenges that could come with the isolated nature of the past year. We hoped that working together and working with VC to come up with some new designs and having the opportunity to collectively sport new gear on campus would contribute to a boost in morale during what has been a tough year for everyone.
It has already been fun to see the team (and some alumni) representing Cold Front all across the country now that we’re on summer break and we can’t wait to rep VC once competition resumes!
JR: What’s next for the team – anything exciting you’re looking forward to?
CF: We are obviously really excited to get back to playing ultimate, which we have not been able to do for the past year due to COVID restrictions. We can’t wait to welcome new players to the team this fall by continuing to cultivate an environment that is inclusive of both those who have never picked up a disc before, as well as more experienced players.
We’re excited for this past year’s new Cold Fronters and next year’s new Cold Fronters to experience tournaments, indoor league, and team scrimmages for the first time! COVID has forced us to be creative, resilient, and humorous in the way we operate as leadership and as a team, and we’re looking forward to continuing to carry those mindsets with us even as restrictions ease up.
We are also excited to further develop our DEI Committee, and to continue the initiatives they have been working on throughout the past few years. The committee has been writing a team equity statement which is on course to be released in the fall. Moving into next year, we hope to partner with other groups and teams on campus to work more collaboratively on equity and justice-oriented work, as well as to hopefully organize some community-engaged projects and ultimate events in Lewiston once it is safe to do so.
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VC appreciates the opportunity to work with teams who share our values, and we want to thank Liz and Cold Front for trusting us to be part of their 2021 season! Thank you to Cold Front for the awesome photos.
Cold Front players are wearing our non-binary Raglan jerseys, made from 100% recycled plastic.
